Heritage

In almost every country and city in the world,
Governments are protecting and reclaiming their heritage. Growing
understanding of the outstanding universal value of urban heritage goes
well beyond the value of the individual buildings it contains.

The preservation of cultural heritage,” explains
the Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, “is essential for two
separate sets of reasons: because of its universal aesthetic and
historic value on the one hand and because of its importance to the
societies and cultures that are its custodians on the other. Cultural
heritage provides a link between past and present and as such boosts
individuals’ and communities’ sense of identity and social cohesion. In
this way it also cements the foundation on which societies build their
future.” However, preserving individual buildings and monuments while
carelessly altering their urban environment causes these monuments to
lose their meaning and, arguably, much of their value, according to the
World Heritage Committee and the experts that advise it.

To quote Her Excellency the Right Honourable
Adrienne Clarkson: “In Canada, our material well-being and our social
conscience have combined to create a country that is often described as
the best in the world. While we are proud of this accomplishment, we
know that our present good fortune is built on the convictions and
actions of earlier Canadians. Their efforts brought our society into
being, and its present and future growth will be safeguarded by our
knowledge of the perils and opportunities that history offers.”

Canada is a nation with a rich river heritage.
Rivers molded this country and its peoples. We use rivers as travel
routes and as a source of livelihood. We swim and fish in their waters,
are challenged by their rapids and wilderness, find peace of mind and
solitude along their shores. Rivers are part of our lives and our
dreams. Rivers are the threads that weave together the natural and human
elements of Canada. But many of our rivers have been severely impacted
by dams, diversions, pollution and development. As a result, much of our
river heritage is threatened and may be lost forever.

North Delta was built upon the river by pioneers
who came here to fish and farm. Families that have lived here since the
1800s and brought up generations of children, are still here because of
the livability of our neighbourhoods. Many of our streets are named
after these pioneers, yet the current plans for the SFPR, threaten to
evict these very families, and expropriate their homes. We have a rich
heritage in Delta and therefore a lot to lose. While the South Fraser
Perimeter road is an important part of the infrastructure required for
the movement of containers and goods, it should not come at such a dear
cost to our community. Under the current plans we stand to lose the
Johnson house which was built in1915, his son’s house and store on
Centre Street, the Jensen House, the Nesbitt house on the hill above the
cannery, built by Richard Nesbitt, manager of the cannery for years, the
Bartlett house and Watchman’s shack in the ravine by the Cannery, and
the Glenrose cannery itself, the last working cannery on the Fraser
River, will have its access blocked and so the oldest remaining North
Delta business will be told to move on. Other heritage homes that are
not on the expropriation list will be seriously devalued by being close
to, or under a freeway and the resultant pollution that goes with
it.

As well as heritage buildings being lost, the
families that built them are being driven out of North Delta.

The Sheaves have lived on River Road all their
lives with Sheaves Court named for them. Now they don’t know if they
should bother putting a new roof on their house, because for years they
have heard a freeway is coming.

Iverson Crescent was named for her husband, yet at
91 yrs. of age, Mrs. Iverson sits on her porch watching the river as she
has done for 75 years on River Road, and wonders where she will go. Her
son lives next door and works the river. His boats and the net shed his
family have leased for decades will be gone. Her daughter, three doors
down, wonders where they could buy equivalent properties where the
family can stay intact.

Several very long term families and dozens of
others will be sent packing, as well as home based businesses that have
been built upon the river. Bill Hill’s house is not in danger of
expropriation, however his view of the mountains and the river he played
on as a small child over seventy years ago will be obscured by a raised
freeway that is planned in front of his home. These families are our
heritage and what is happening to them is scandalous, immoral and
criminal. We must all work to preserve and protect North Delta’s
heritage and those families that created it!

As stated in the Delta motto ‘yours to protect
through hand and heart’…..and as per Delta’s Official Community Plan,
let’s work hard to make our community
Livable by creating
a sustainable, healthy and safe community in which today’s quality of
life will also be enjoyed in the future; Planned by fostering
development in a planned and integrated manner that respects natural
systems, manages urban growth, provides transportation choices and
reinforces community identity; Complete by developing a community
in which people of all ages, family structures, backgrounds and
interests can live, work and play; and most of all, Green by
protecting the natural environment and heritage features of our
community.

Investments in modern infrastructure and
facilities should not make us lose the proven social, cultural and
economic assets that our heritage represents. The Sunbury Neighbourhood
Association is not willing to give up our heritage and our founding
families to make way for a freeway that will expedite the movement of
goods, but at such a huge cost to our community. There is another
option!

The Sunbury Neighbourhood Association is looking
forward to working with The Greater Vancouver Gateway Council to plan an
infrastructure that allows for the movement of goods to and from our
federally mandated ports and the rest of Canada, while protecting our
community with its deep, rich heritage, archeological importance and
irreplaceable habitat. We would also like to have the answers to the
following questions:

oHow many homes/businesses would be
expropriated and what is the expropriation process?

oHow many would suffer what most would
consider to be “unacceptable” noise/visual impacts and how can these
possibly be mitigated?

oWhat other major inconveniences would
people suffer and to what extent?